SFpark Pilot Project Wins Good Government Award

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which oversees all transportation in the city, announced that the SFpark project received one of five Public Managerial Excellence Awards at the 2012 MFAC Good Government Awards, held at San Francisco City Hall and presented by Mayor Edwin M. Lee last night. Earlier this month SFpark was also honored for its innovation by Excellence.gov. SFpark, a federally funded pilot project run by the SFMTA, uses new smart parking management technologies and pricing policies to make it easier and faster to park in San Francisco. Better management of parking will open San Francisco's streets and result in cleaner air, improved safety and faster Muni times.

"With SFpark, the SFMTA is demonstrating the kind of green innovative leadership for which San Francisco is known," said Edward D. Reiskin, director of transportation. "I am proud of the work our team is doing developing and testing such a pioneering concept."

The MFAC Good Government Awards — sponsored by the Municipal Fiscal Advisory Committee (MFAC), a project of San Francisco Planning and Urban Research (SPUR) — recognize outstanding performances by managers working for the city and county of San Francisco. The SFpark team was chosen for its implementation of the groundbreaking smart parking management program under tight time constraints, demonstrating innovation within an area of the public realm often taken for granted.

The SFpark project also recently won the Excellence.gov Award for Excellence in Innovation: Mobility. SFpark won this award for its smartphone apps, which provide real-time parking availability and rate information; the project data stream, which makes this information freely available to outside app developers; and its underlying data management system. Created in 2001 by the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC), the Excellence.gov Awards recognize government programs that use information technology to advance the business of government.

The SFpark pilot covers 7,000 of San Francisco's 28,800 metered spaces and 12,250 spaces in 15 of 20 SFMTA-managed parking garages. These garages and spaces are located in the following neighborhoods: Civic Center, Hayes Valley, the Financial District, SoMa, the Mission, Fisherman's Wharf, the Fillmore and the Marina. The SFpark pilot is 80 percent funded by the United States Department of Transportation's Urban Partnership Program and will run until summer 2012.